William N. Parker
(Hertford County)
Featured Character – Divided Allegiances
William
N. Parker
Courtesy of William J. Parker, Jr.
Son of a yeoman farmer, William
Norfleet Parker grew up in
rural Hertford
County.
The 1860 Census valued his
father’s assets at only $280. On June 17, 1861, Parker
enlisted as a
private in Company C, 2nd North Carolina Cavalry
at the age of 19.
Forced to train un-mounted due to a lack of horses, the 2nd
North Carolina
spent the winter of 1861 encamped near New Bern.
On March
11, 1862, with the Union fleet just days away from attacking New Bern,
Parker received a medical discharge
for “physical inability,” probably caused by dysentery. After
a period of
convalescence at Leigh Plantation in Hertford
County,
Parker joined at least two
different guerrilla bands operating in northeastern North Carolina.
Once North
Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance ordered all partisans groups to leave
the Albemarle
region, Parker
did not join them. Instead, he worked as a day laborer for
William
Bosworth Pritchard, a wealthy Pasquotank County
farmer. The
1860 Census estimated his net worth at $3,922. On December
19,
1865,
Parker married Pritchard’s daughter, Elizabeth Virginia Pritchard.
A
farmer, Parker became heavily active in the William F. Martin Camp
of the
United Confederate Veterans. In 1911, he marched in the
dedication parade
for Pasquotank
County’s
Confederate
Monument.
Advanced in age, the
Parkers eventually moved to a house on Southern Avenue in Elizabeth
City.
William Norfleet Parker died there on February 28, 1924.